Gas turbines are widely used in industrial and commercial operations. For example, a typical commercial gas turbine used to generate electrical power includes a compressor at the front, one or more combustors around the middle, and a turbine at the rear. The compressor generally includes alternating stages of stator vanes and rotating blades as is known in the art. Ambient air enters the compressor as a working fluid, and the compressor progressively imparts kinetic energy to the working fluid to produce a compressed working fluid at a highly energized state. The compressed working fluid exits the compressor and flows to the combustors where it mixes with fuel and ignites to generate combustion gases having a high temperature and pressure. The turbine generally includes alternating stages of stator vanes and rotating blades. The stator vanes may be attached to a stationary component such as a casing that surrounds the turbine, and the rotating blades may be attached to a rotor located along an axial centerline of the turbine. The combustion gases flow through the turbine where they expand to produce work.
The rotor in the gas turbine may actually include a number of rotor wheels connected together to facilitate manufacture and assembly of the rotor. In the turbine section, the rotor wheels may include dovetail slots circumferentially arranged around the rotor wheel to receive complementary dovetail extensions of the rotating blades. Periodically, the rotating blades are removed, and the dovetail slots are cleaned of all residue, deposits, and debris to facilitate non-destructive testing of the rotor wheels.
Various systems and methods are known in the art for cleaning the dovetail slots prior to the non-destructive testing. For example, dry ice blasting and/or commercially available abrasive pads may be used clean the dovetail slots. However, the various efforts often result in incomplete and/or inconsistent cleaning that must be resolved before the non-destructive testing can proceed. As a result, an improved apparatus for cleaning dovetail slots in the rotor wheels would be useful.